Marketing God to Teens: Branding Without Dismantling

By Ryan J. Doeller

As companies such as Coca-Cola and Toyota respectively become increasingly prominent through self-promotion and fierce competition for the attention and allegiance of the teenage demographic, by contrast, church attendance amongst young people in the West is in decline. These companies invest considerable resources in finding ways to market their products in ways that appeal to young people, distinguishing their products from those of their competitors and ensuring long-term brand loyalty through providing customer satisfaction. The potential impact of the continuation of these trends compels us to address the controversial question of whether, and to what extent, the church could learn from the marketing strategies of secular organizations, and apply their techniques in order to address the diminishing interest of young people in Christianity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Nov 29, 2010
• ISBN: 9781456822521

Ryan J. Doeller

Ryan J. Doeller graduated from Elim Bible Institute in New York in 2002 and has an MA in Missional Leadership from the University of Wales (2008). Currently, he is a youth leader in the South West of England, where he has pioneered a number of youth projects over the last 10 years. Away from work he enjoys spending time with family and friends, reading, travelling and sports.

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Copyright © 2010 by Ryan J. Doeller.

ISBN:          Softcover                                 978-1-4568-2251-4

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Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1

How and why to leave a lasting impression on teenage minds

Youth Influence

Marketing

Advertising

Branding

2

Successful companies in marketing to teenagers

A Brief History of Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola and Teen Marketing

Coke and social networking

Coca-Cola’s reputation

Toyota: A Brief History

Toyota and Scion

Scion and Virtual Marketing

Scion & Second Life

Scion & Whyville.net

Toyota & Gaia Online

Toyota & There.com

Other ways in which Toyota are targeting teenagers

Toyota’s reputation

The key elements of marketing for Coca-Cola and Toyota

3

The changing of church influence in society

Christendom

The church’s control of printed material

Post-Christendom and the effect on teenagers

Should churches market?

Marketing the Christian Message

Marketing in the Bible

Did Jesus and Paul market the Christian message?

Evangelism

Positioning

What is being marketed by the church?

The Environment

Felt Needs—as it relates to the environment

The product of the church

Church youth groups and what they are offering

4

The Church’s Priority

What the church should promote

A better quality of life: the church’s product

A better quality of life: The Bible’s product

Christ created an environment that mimicked His product

The Kingdom of God

The environment of the church

A successful youth ministry

The Tension

Conclusion: The Way Ahead

Bibliography

Internet Sources

Acknowledgments

I want to extend my gratitude to the following persons who have made the completion of this book possible.

Chard Churches Together Youth Initiative, my employer, who has supported me financially and given me the space to complete this work.

To my parents for their wisdom and listening ears over the years; and who were influential in my travelling to the UK for my first youth work placement in 2003.

Most of all, I dedicate this book to my wife, Georgina who has been wholly supportive throughout the writing of this book. She is my partner for life, and she is my strongest supporter and my constant encourager.

Introduction

It is contested that ten percent of the nouns in a two-year-olds’ vocabulary are brand names.[1] With the sheer volume of choices available, if companies are to be successful they must find a way to make their product or services stand out amidst the competition. North America provides the cultural setting for this research project, with the brands Coca-Cola (Coke) and Toyota standing out as particularly familiar, as two of the most well-known brands in the United States.

Coca-Cola has been deemed as American as baseball,[2] and is officially the most recognizable brand in the world.[3] Similarly, in producing an innovative car model called Scion[4] (pronounced sigh-on); Toyota’s introduction of a brand that was edgy, urban and underground[5] was met with great popularity, appealing in particular to young people and teenagers. Through novel and sophisticated marketing strategies, Coca-Cola and Toyota successfully embed their brands in people’s minds and guarantee for themselves a strong demand for their products. In contrast, the worldwide church has been in decline for many years. If these statistics are to change, the church must rise to the challenge of changing public perception and try new ways of connecting particularly to the younger generations, to prevent the trends from continuing in this manner.

In what follows I will argue that the church’s demise is essentially due to a marketing problem and that if the church successfully employs marketing techniques, the result will be increased church attendance as well as an increased awareness of the church’s presence in the community.

At this point the contentious issue can be raised of whether, in order for the church to attract teenagers into the Christian community, it may be necessary to employ certain principles of marketing from other, secular organizations which are proving more successful in their outreach to this age group. Yet adopting such an approach would inevitably cause controversy and would demand a high level of caution, not least because in the process of creating a new strategy to market the gospel, the church may risk losing its focus and compromising the core values of the Christian faith. Coca-Cola and Toyota are two such examples of companies which have marketed successfully for generations, epitomising effective marketing to teenagers, the target age bracket for most companies (the reasons for which are discussed below), marking teenagers as the focus of increasingly greater levels of resources.

In this book, I am seeking to demonstrate that the church needs to re-evaluate how it brands itself to teenagers and adopt some of the marketing strategies that other companies adhere too. The church, and specifically the youth ministry team, not only need to change what is being offered to un-churched teenagers, in order to leave a lasting impression in young people’s minds which will ensure their continued loyalty, but also how their message is communicated. In order for this to generate visible results, the youth ministry may need to observe other companies who are marketing successfully to this demographic and learn from their strategies. Yet throughout this process of transformation, it is imperative that the church remains conscious that if she reflects too much of the worldly approach to marketing, the crucial distinction between what the world is offering, and what the church is offering,

may be lost.

To defend this proposal, in chapter one I shall explore why companies focus so much attention on the teenage market, and how they are trying to leave a lasting impression on young people by trying to create a loyalty for their product in particular, above the plethora of other options. In chapter two, I will identify two specific successful companies and explore in greater depth the ways in which they market their brand to teenagers, as well as the results which follow. The next chapter will look at the pattern of decline in church attendance, focusing primarily on teenagers. In the later chapters of the discussion, I will offer some theological reflection on what the church should and should not market, and the critiques of the marketing approach for Christianity. In addition, I will put forward some personal suggestions on how to contend with the lack of teenage attendance in church, and the ramifications of modelling the market approach of other businesses.

1

How and why to leave a lasting impression on teenage minds

Youth Influence

One of the significant demographic changes in the past decade is that of teenagers, an age group that has not been so highly represented since the teenage years of the Baby Boom—children born between 1946 and 1953. While in 2004, 25 million teenagers comprised 8.5 percent of the total U.S population, this figure is projected to rise to 10 percent by 2010.[6]

The economic potential of the youth market presents a lucrative opportunity for businesses. American society is permeated with examples of marketing that is focusing more on teenagers due to marketers’ increasing awareness of the profitability of directing their attention towards the purchasing power and influence that adolescents represent. In 1958, the purchasing power of teens was 9.5 billion dollars—ten times the total receipts of the movie industry—two thirds of which came from their parents, and the other third from their own earnings.[7] The growing teenage population inevitably has consequences for companies’ sales.